How English Readers Help?

One way for junior high school graduates to polish their English so that they won't find high school English too hard is to read some readers, such as those published by Oxford, Cambridge (http://www.cambridge.org/gb/elt/catalogue/subject/project/custom/item5964416/Cambridge-English-Readers-News/?site_locale=en_GB), or Macmillan (http://www.macmillanreaders.com/). Such reading materials can be found at Caves (敦煌), Crane (文鶴), or Bookman (書林) Bookstores.

Etta, a former student I met at Chiehshow Junior High School and who has a very good command of English, told me she read quite a few readers during the summer vacation leading to high school, such as Three Piglets, The Ugly Duckling, etc. Asked why she picked these books whose stories she'd already been familiar with, she said knowing the storyline not only made it easier for her to guess the meanings of the news words she came across but helped increase her reading speed.  Take Spencer, a former student from NHSH who later majored in English at NTU, for another example. He read a lot of English readers borrowed from the NHSH library when he was a freshman, which, according to him, was definitely of great help in enhancing his English.

It would be even better if the readers are accompanied with a CD so that one can listen to it and stay familiar with the English sound system.